In a scathing attack on Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government for its drubbing in recently held MLC polls in the state, ‘Saamna’, the official newspaper of the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray faction said that the educated people have rejected the ruling alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction).Saamna in its latest editorial said, “The result of the election of the five Legislative Council seats of the state is the mandate of people of Maharashtra. BJP got only one seat out of five. The BJP-Shinde alliance was defeated. These results will put a brake on the falsity of the Fadnavis-Shinde government. ”The party said that the BJP-Shinde alliance was rejected by educated people of the state as only they exercised their vote in the recently concluded Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections o n five seats. The three teachers’ constituencies of Konkan, Aurangabad and Nagpur, and two graduates constituencies of Nashik and Amravati went to polls on 30 January and the counting of votes began Thursday.
The results brought cheers to the tripartite alliance of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as they won three of five seats and an upset for the ruling alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party- Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who were facing their first polls after joining hands in June last year. The results are also seen as a setback for the BJP-Shinde government as they bagged only the Konkan seat. BJP candidate Dnyaneshwar Mhatre trounced MVA-backed nominee Balaram Patil from the Konkan teachers’ legislative council constituency. Reacting to this, the Uddhav Thackeray camp in its mouthpiece said that the credit belongs to the winning candidate Mhatre more than BJP as the party got a ‘readymade’ candidate.“Dnyaneshwar Mhatre from Kokan constituency (Teacher) defeated sitting MLC Balaram Patil. Balaram Patil was the candidate of the Shetkari Kamgar Party (SKP), but MVA supported him. However, the teacher voters of Konkan gave a different verdict this time. The weak alliance of BJP-Shinde won the only seat of Konkan. In this, Mhatre deserves more praise than BJP as he is not a native BJP man. They got a ‘readymade’ candidate and luckily they won,” it said. Shiv Sena also refuted the claims of receiving a setback after its loss in the Konkan seat and said that it is ‘totally rubbish’. “The decision, given by the graduates-teachers is the latest public mandate of Maharashtra. BJP and Shinde government have to digest many shocks now as this is just the beginning,” the editorial read further.